This is a leader's square for storage leaders, IBM, Dell EMC and Scality tell wide-eyed Qumulo

All the node movers and shakers in Gartner's paranormal polygon

Eight object and distributed file storage suppliers have shuffled positions in Gartner's annually updated Magic Quadrant for the sector – two new entrants, three promotions, two demotions and an exit.

The infamous paranormal polygon is defined by an Ability to Execute vertical axis and a Completeness of Vision horizontal axis. The square is sub-divided into four components labelled as visionaries, niche players, challengers and leaders.

Suppliers are placed in one of these boxes so their supposed merits can be quickly compared.

The three leaders from last year – Dell EMC, IBM and Scality – have been joined by Qumulo, promoted from the visionaries' quadrant to the leaders' box.

Last year's equivalent quizzical quadrangle for comparison:

We see that:

Qumulo has been promoted from visionary to leader

Chinese supplier Inspur enters as niche player

DDN falls back as niche player

Ditto SUSE but not so much

NetApp moves from niche player to visionary

Western Digital (HGST) and Cloudian get promoted from niche players to challengers

Pure Storage enters as a visionary

Huawei has been promoted as a niche player

StorageCraft has been ejected from the niche player box and the MQ entirely